Mendele: Yiddish literature and language
______________________________________________________
Contents of Vol. 4.307
January 31, 1995

1) Name-pairing (Paul Pascal)
2) Name-pairing (Paul Pascal)
3) Name-pairing (Rick Gildemeister)
4) Name-pairing (David Sherman)
5) Name-pairing (Mikhl Herzog)

1)----------------------------------------------------
Date: 30 Jan 95 18:49:30 EST
From: 75332.2735@compuserve.com
Subject: Itsik/Isaac

Mikhl Herzog's fascinating elaboration on the Hebrew-Yiddish name-pairing
custom brought to mind a particular pairing which I've seen repeatedly
but which has left me scratching my head every time.  I have seen this in
old documents from Romania and other East European countries.  It is not
a Yiddish-Hebrew pairing, but rather an apparently Hebrew-English or
Yiddish-English pairing. (I'm sure there is a better explanation for it
than this pshat.)  I'm referring to Itsik-Aizik, or Yitschok-Aizik. In
America?--Nu, meyle.  But where could the long "I" sound come from in
that other, most non-Anglo-saxon, part of the world?

Paul Pascal
Toronto

2)----------------------------------------------------
Date: 31 Jan 95 00:11:46 EST
From: 75332.2735@compuserve.com
Subject: Name Pairings

In response to Varda Ullman Novick's query about women's name pairings,
it was less common, until this century, to give women Hebrew names
instead of, or in addition to, Yiddish ones,  as compared with men.  The
exceptions were the names of the biggest female stars of Jewish history:
the Matriarchs (Sore, Rivke, Rokhl, and Leye), Ester, Khane, Khave (my
old kheyder-lerer told me Odem un Khave spoke Hebrew in Gan-Eydn, so you
can count the original Khave as Jewish ;-)  ).

Women were not given aliyes to the Toyre, so why should they have Hebrew
names?--this seems to have been the thinking (of course, the relative
scarcity or omission of women heroes in the Tanakh itself didn't help
matters in this regard, but perhaps this begs the question).   Neither
were women schooled in "Di Shvartse Pintelekh", Holy Writ and the Hebrew
language, as men were; their davening was mostly in Yiddish.  "Got fun
Avrom...", for example, was the woman's tfile that ushered in the week at
the end of Shabes, and "Tsenurena" was the women's Yiddish version of the
Tanakh (even though the title is Hebrew, sort of.)

However, women's names were often paired, nevertheless.  I don't know if
there was a system to it.  Now, until two minutes ago my sense was that
women's name-pairings were of the Yiddish-Yiddish variety, but the first
examples that come to mind (from people in my life) are, in fact, Yiddish
in combination with the Hebrew exceptions I mentioned earlier:
Elke-Leye, Sore-Beyle, Feyge-Rokhl. Then there's Ester-Malke, ultimately
a Hebrew-Hebrew pairing, as is Sore-Ester. Other pairings:  Khasye-Grune,
Khaye-Gitl, and there's Pnine-Perl, but this may be recent (it's also an
example of the same name in the two languages, one of the paradigms--for
men--which Mikhl Herzog posted).

Regarding Dovid Braun's sense that Shmuel-Shmelke and Moyshe-Meshl do not
seem like obvious pairings, I would guess that the middle step, in the
first case, came from Poyln, Galitsiye, etc.,  with Shmiel for Shmuel,
and in the second case, from the Litvishe Meyshe for Moyshe.

Paul Pascal
Toronto

3)----------------------------------------------------
Date: Tue, 31 Jan 95 08:52:46 EST
From: eeglc%cunyvm.bitnet@yalevm.cis.yale.edu
Subject: Ayzik/Yitskhok

It was interesting to follow Mikhl Herzog and Dovid Braun's discussion of
Zaynvl (what about Zangwill, could that possibly be related too? You
can't help but suspect it but the initial consonant is "ts" not "z").

I've always suspected, and correct me if I'm wrong, that Ayzik, the
Germanic component form for Yitskhok (like Zaynvl from Zamuel) is a case
where that vowel i, which normally became ay, changed in Yiddish but did
not yield the same result in modern German, where I believe it is Isaac
(I know the vowel is definitely i).

Rick Gildemeister

4)----------------------------------------------------
From: dave@cai.lsuc.on.ca
Subject: Name-pairing

Mikhl Herzog writes:

> III. Traditional pairings for which I don't know the rationale: _Itshe
> (=Yitskhok)-Mayer_, _Yekhiel-Mikhl_..., _Yaynkef-Yitskhok_
> (pairing of the "fathers", perhaps).

Sometimes they're named after specific past luminaries. Among Lubavitch,
for example, Yosef Yitkhok and Menakhem Mendl are both very common names
given to boys, after the two most recent Lubavitcher Rebbes.
Interestingly, Menakhem Mendl was commonly given even while the latest
Rebbe was alive; the custom of naming only after a deceased person, which
applies to relatives, does not appear to apply to the Rebbe. (Also
interestingly, Lubavitch still teaches their kids to refer to the "Rebbe
Sh'lita" rather than the "Rebbe olevasholom". But I digress.)

I've heard that Mayer Yekhiel is another common pairing, in memory of a
past sage in Poland (the Or Sameyakh? not sure).

David Sherman

5)----------------------------------------------------
Date: Tue, 31 Jan 95  11:44 EST
From: zogur@cuvmb.columbia.edu
Subject: Names and name-pairing--male and female

1. Dovid Braun asks about _Moyshe-Meshl_ and _Shmuel-Shmelke_. In both
cases, the hypochoristic forms are familiar, but I've never encountered
the pairings in this fashion.

In any event, I'd derive _Meshl_ from an intermediate diminutive
_Moshke_. As for _Shmelke_: the process that may be involved and its
usual geography don't seem to go together. Consider

Litvish Yiddish:

i) prevocalic diphthongization. uy < u in _Shevuyes_ (the _yontef_) and
_Shmuyel, and oy < o , also in _Shevoyes_, and  in _toyes_ 'error';

ii) prevocalic lowering _shevoyes_ < shevuyes, _freyer_ < _friyer
'earlier', and _Gavreyel_ < _Gavriyel (man's name). Diminutive? I'd vote
for _*Gavrelke_.

Ergo? _If_ this process were a feature of Central Yiddish, I'd derive
_Shmelke_ from _Shmiyel_. (In other words, "Ven di bobe volt gehat . .
.".) But, _it's not_!

2. Like _Shmuel-Za(y)nvl_, we have _Shloyme-Zalman_ (= Solomon). As for
_Itshe-Meyer_ (Central Yiddish _Itshe-Mayer_): Why was it paired for the
Hassidic Rabbi in the first place? and, why _Simkhe-Bunim_ and
_Shneyer-Zalman_? Incidentally, does anyone know how _Shneyer-Zalman_ is
called to the Torah? These are two, "hebreoid", non-Hebrew names.

3. Another pairing I'm familiar with, in the category of
_Yaynkef-Yitskhok_ is _Moyshe-Arn_.

4. _Un az me redt shoyn vegn nemen_, note the Litvish variants _Hirshe_,
_Bere_, _Leybe_, all of them back-formations from the oblique forms of
_Hirsh_, _Ber_, _Leyb_ (_zog dos Hirshen_, _gib dos Leyben_; hence
_Hirshe, Leybe_, etc., on the analogy of _Moyshen_/_Moyshe_ and
_Shloymen_/_Shloyme_).

5. Varda Novick asks about female names. Pairing of women's names is not
nearly as frequent. At least, the rationale for particular pairs is not
nearly so evident.

For men, pairing generally assures the availability of a name by which he
can be called to the reading of the Torah, a function which women were
not expected to perform. Therefore, women a) didn't "need" them and ii)
women's names are far less frequently of Hebrew origin. Still,
_Rokhl-Leye_, _Sore-Rifke_, and _Khaye- Sore_ are frequent enough (much
like _Yaynkef-Yitskhok_ and _Moyshe-Arn_, I think).

In addition, I know a few pairs like _Sheyne-Sheyndl_ (= Name +
Diminutive) and _Sheyne-Beyle_, obviously translation equivalents.

I don't know the rationale for such pairs as _Yakhne-Dvoshe_.

Mikhl Herzog

______________________________________________________
End of Mendele Vol. 4.307

Mendele has 2 rules:

	1. Provide a meaningful Subject: line
	2. Sign your article (full name please)

A Table of Contents is now available via anonymous ftp, along with weekly
updates.

Anonymous ftp archives available on:
          ftp.mendele.trincoll.edu
          in the directory pub/mendele/files

Archives available via gopher on:
        gopher.cic.net

Send articles to:
        mendele@yalevm.ycc.yale.edu

Send change-of-status messages to:
        listserv@yalevm.ycc.yale.edu

        a. For a temporary stop: set mendele nomail
        b. To resume delivery: set mendele mail
        c. To subscribe: sub mendele first_name last_name
        d. To unsubscribe kholile: unsub mendele

Other business:
        nmiller@mail.trincoll.edu